Airship



April 15, 1930. v w. E. DORR 1,754,883

- Y Ax nsuxr Filed April 18. 1927 2 Sheets-Sheet l Inventor.-

his Illwwey April 15 1930. v I w. E ."DORR 1, AIRSHIP v Filed April 18,1927 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 the motor is driven Patented Apr. 15, 1930'WILHELM E. D633, 01 FRIEDRIGHSHAFEN, GERMANY, ASSIGNOR TOLUF'ISCHIFFBAU ZEPPELIN GES EIJLBOHAI'T HIT BESGHRANKTER HAFTUNG, OFFRIEDRICHSHAIEN,

AIBSHIP Application filed April 18, 1927,

My invention relates to airships and more especially to such ships ofthe kind in which by gaseous fuel instead of liquid.

Heretofore it has been the custom to feed the motors of airships withliquid fuel, such as gasoline or the like, but recently it has been proosed to use gaseous fuel instead of liquid. If the gas or mixture ofgases used for this purpose have a specific gravity approximatmg that ofair, a great advantage is assured with this method ofoperating-airships. With liquid fuel the consumption of the fuel causesa constantloss in weight, which must be compensated by expulsion oflifting gas. This results in an excessive-loss of lifting gas, esspecially on long journeys, which loss will be avoided by operatingairships in the above mentioned modern manner. Here .the consumption offuel does notefl'ect the static equilibrium of the air ship whiletraveling,

because the fuel gas consumed will be replaced by air, both gases havingapproximately the same specific gravity.

In air ships intended to be operated in this new manner it. will .not benecessary to provide particular stress transmitting members for thepurpose of carrying the fuel by means of the lift exerted by the liftinggas. Accordingly my invention provides two different kinds of gasspaces, one for the purpose of receiving the lifting gas and ada ted totransmit the buoyancy of the gas to t 'e load carried by the airship,and a second kind of gas space intended to receive the fuel gas whichpractically has no weight. This manner of constructing an airshipaccording to my invention results in a great advantage in that it willbe necessary to provide stress transmitting members only for thestructure intended to be inflated with lifting gas and to carrytheloads, confining the fuel gas it will be suflicient to provide merelyshape giving outside. walls. For this latter gas container it may bepossible to have no circumferential rigid structure at all, but tohavebags blown up b the gas. In such case, forthe purpose of ma 'ng surethat the outer shape of the airship will not change,

it may be advisable to provide additional air of the gas containerswhereas for the purpose of emu 11 184,504, andin Germany May 15, 1926.

bags, which may be inflated with air to a degree commensurate with theconsuimption of the fuel gas.

Of course, such circumstances may arise that it will be consideredpractical to combine my new arrangement of construction with previouslyknown constructions; that is, it may be profitable to partly use theshape giving wall structure of the fuel gas s ace for also transmittinga minor portion of the stresses occurring between the lifting space andthe loads. This will depend principally upon the shape chosen for theairship especially upon'the shape of its cross section. According'to myinvention it may, for example, be advantageous to make use of the, inmany respects, very suitable pear-shaped cross section, its upperportion being surrounded by a structure adapted to receive the liftingforces and to carry the loads, whereas the lower portion which is ofmore or less triangular shape, may have stress transmitting sides and beinflated with fuel gas.

According to also be used which allow for bulging of one into the spaceoriginally provided for the other kind of gas. The main my inventionstructures may A princlple of my invention is that thecarrying 7structure of the airship, especially the hull of rigid ships, is reducedcorrespondingly with the reduction of the space necessary forcontainingthe lifting gas, Whereas the fuel gas is confined by wallsbeing substantiallyshape-giving only, thereby providing for a greatsaving in weight.

Havmg given a general description of my invention I now want to polnt itout more in detail referring to the drawings which represent examplesembodying my invention.

All the figures are cross sections through rigid airships, but eachrepresenting a different example. In all of them A represents the spacefor the lifting gas and B the space for the fuel gas. The longitudinalgirders of the loadcarrying hull are designated by the letter a, whilethe transverse girders are indicated at b. The walls 0 of the fuel gascontainers may-be enclosed by a common outer cover cl surrounding alsothe hull containing the lifting gas. There may be provided longitudinalstiffening members e between walls c and cover d. The cars f aresuspended from the hull containing the lifting gas.

In Fi l a pear-shaped cross section is shown w erein the upper portionis intended to receive the lifting gas and the lower portion the fuelgas.

Fig. 2 represents a somewhat horse-shoelike cross section, its upperportion again being intended for inflation with lifting gas, and the twolower portions receiving the fuel Fig. 3 gives another exampleresembling that of Fig. 2, but here the upper hull structure differsfrom that of Fig. 2 in that it constitutes an individual upper closedportion from which the lower fuel gas containers are sus ended.

n Fig. 4 another modification of the structure according to Fig. 2 isshown.

In the examples represented in Figs. 5 and 6 two separate lifting gasspaces are provi ed, each of circular cross wedge-shaped fuel gascontainers are inserted between the lifting gas hulls in such mannerthat all four containers together form a suitable shape for an airshicross section. In Fig. 6 additional air ba s 8 are rovided for thepurpose of being in ated wit air in proportion with the consumption offuel gas.

I do not want to be limited to the details described or shown in thedrawin as many variations will occur to those ski fled in the art.

What I claim is: a

1. An airship comprisin two kinds of gas containers,lift1ng gas inone'nd of container, fuel gas of approximately the same specific gravity asair in the other kind of container, and a rigid hull surrounding thelifting gas container for receiving the hfting forces an the loads ofthe airship, the fuel gas container being composed of material ofrelatively }ig{11t weig t and located outside the rigid lll 2. Anairship comprising two kinds of gas containers, lifting gas in one ln'ndof container, fuel of approximael the same specific gravity as air inthe ot er kind of container, a rigid hull surroundin the lifting gascontainer for receiving t e lifting forces and loads of the airship,1 acover of light weight surrounding the el as contamer outside the hull,and an air ag arranged in conjunction .with the fuel gas container, saidairbag being adapted to be inflated to replace the volume of fuel gasconsumed.

3. An airship comprising a lifting gas container, a flexible inflatablefuel container, a structure surrounding the -li g gas container, saidlifting gas acting against said structure to sustain all the loads ofthe airship, the fuel container bein outside the structure and ing freefrom load forces section, and two acting upon the structure surroundingthe lifting gas.

4. rigid airship comprising a lifting gas container,. a load-carryingrigid structure surrounding the lifting gas container an an inflatablefuel gas container attached outside the rigid struct ire, the structureof the fuel gas container beingicomposed of material of less weight andstrength than the material constitutin the rigid structure.

5. A rigid airship aving a cross-section of horse-shoe shape, the upperrtion thereof having a surrounding rigid hull, lifting gas in said upperportion, the lower portions being outside the rigid hull and havingsurrounding walls of materialllf less Wei ht an strength than the rigidhu and fue gas in said lower portioris.

ILHELM E. DORR.

